Identification bracelets are widely used to identify persons or objects in various settings, for example, in hospitals and medical facilities as well as in entertainment venues, recreation sites, and other locations where individual identification and/or crowd control is necessary. Such bracelets typically include identifying or other relevant indicia relating to the person or object to which the bracelet is attached, as well as a closure that allows for easy fastening of the bracelet. The closures are usually either mechanical or adhesive, and are configured to render unauthorized removal of the bracelet difficult or easily detectable.
Bracelets having adhesive closures tend to be simpler than those having mechanical closures, in both production and use. The adhesive closure is typically provided at one end of an elongated strip and covered by a release liner. To fasten the bracelet, the release liner is removed so as to expose the adhesive, the bracelet is encircled about an object or appendage, and the adhesive end is then pressed onto the surface of the bracelet. In many identification bracelets, the release liner, the adhesive closure, or both, impart an additional thickness to the bracelet in the area of the closure and liner. This can cause issues when the bracelets are fed through a printer, which can result in jams, as well as when the bracelets are wound up into spools or rolls, which results in uneven or asymmetrical bracelet spools. To mitigate this issue, some bracelets are constructed to have uniform thickness throughout the bracelet, with the adhesive closure and liner being formed from the laminates used to construct the bracelet. However, in both of the above bracelet configurations, the release liner can be difficult to remove, requiring repeated attempts to separate the liner from the adhesive, which can cause delays in situations where large quantities of bracelets need to be deployed, as well as frustration for the user. Moreover, if, upon fastening, a portion of the adhesive closure does not overlap the bracelet, that portion of the adhesive remains exposed and can cause discomfort by contacting the skin or clothing of the wearer. In various applications, carefully positioning the closure so that no adhesive is exposed can likewise cause delays and aggravation.
Certain identification bracelets provide tapered closures, i.e., where the width of the closure portion of the bracelet is narrower than width of the remainder of the bracelet. This allows for a greater margin of error in the fastening of the bracelet, as the likelihood that some adhesive remains exposed is reduced by the narrower width of the closure. However, bracelets having non-uniform width, such as those with tapered closures, can present additional issues. For example, continuous strips of bracelets are typically wound into spools or rolls for convenient storage, transport and handling. Bracelets having non-uniform width do not easily form neat spools due to the variation in bracelet width, and instead form spools with uneven and jagged faces. Such uneven faces tend to have many ridges and grooves of various sizes and configurations due to the edges of the rolled up bracelets lining up in various relations to each other. Because of this, such spools are more difficult to stack without risk of the stack toppling, or to otherwise be placed in compact groups. The bracelets in such spools are also more likely to be damaged, for example by bending and creasing, when the spools are stacked or transported. Moreover, bracelets that have non-uniform width can increase the likelihood of jams when fed through a printer or other high-speed feeder or processor.
Therefore, there exists a need for an identification bracelet, which has an easily operable, tapered adhesive closure, possesses the advantages of bracelets with tapered closures, and avoids the disadvantages of both uniform-width and non-uniform-width bracelets.